Love
it or hate it, the full-blown
Sense UI is incorporated into a number of smartphones from HTC.
Users of phones like the EVO 4G are quite familiar with Sense which
sits on top of the stock Android UI. For those that prefer the
cleaner stock Android UI, your only option is to use a custom ROM
which has been designed to remove Sense.

Microsoft,
when designing Windows
Phone 7, decided to be quite a bit more strict when it comes to
UI design. Microsoft's guidelines for smartphone OEMs don't currently
allow them the same freedom as they have with Android. As a result,
the user experience across numerous WP7 smartphones from different
OEMs is very consistent (this is the exact opposite of Android-based
smartphones).

However,
that could be changing according to comments by HTC's Drew Bamford who is in
charge of HTC's User Experience division. “Our
expectation is that we will be able to do more over time,"
Bamford explained
in an interview with Forbes.
“HTC’s goal is for the Sense experience to span all of our
products.”

Bamford
comments are understandable -- with many smartphones coming out
sharing the same hardware specs, screens, and pricing; features like
Sense can help allow one product to standout out versus another.
However, Sense flies in the face of what Microsoft is trying to
achieve with WP7 which Bamford acknowledges.

“Microsoft
has its own goal of consistency across Windows Phone 7 products. I
think it comes down to working closely with Microsoft to do as much
as we can.”

Should
OEMs have the freedom to muck with WP7 however they see fit, or
should Microsoft force OEMs to adhere to its UI guidelines? That's the
$64,000 question.

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I don't even think it should be ON by default. In fact, it shouldn't even be preinstalled. It should be an optional download. Then I wouldn't have a problem buying an HTC phone. As it stands now I'll probably get something from Samsung or LG next time around.